The Office of Community Engaged Learning & Service is a one-stop shop for resources related to connecting students, courses, and faculty scholarship to the community. Community Engaged Learning (CEL) is an instructional strategy that refers to community activities that are integrated with course content to provide enriching, experiential learning opportunities that address the public good.
At Drake, we recognize that CEL extends beyond traditional service-learning and may include a field experience, practicum, internship, capstone, research project, clinical, co-op, or co-curricular activity. The experience may be a direct service/activity, or research, or other off-site work that benefits a community partner. See our philosophy for specific definitions of service-learning, community engagement, etc.
Our Mission Statement
The mission of the Office of Community Engaged Learning is to develop and encourage changemakers who know themselves, understand the complexities of the world they live in, and take creative action to solve problems.
Our Learning Outcomes
As a result of participating in a community-engaged learning opportunity at Drake, students will be able to:
Know themselves
Articulate what one cares about and why, and reflect upon how they present themselves in the world
Analyze one’s privilege and positionality and its impact on people and communities
Understand the world is complex
Identify social problems and their root causes while reflecting on the complexity of social issues
Explore and analyze social issues at the systems level while recognizing the historical and social context
Take creative action – what’s next?
Articulate that social change must be done in partnership with community stakeholders and fulfill a community-identified need
Recognize that there are a multitude of strategies needed to create social change and reflect on the effectiveness and utility of strategies
Take creative action to address social problems, and enable others to act
Our Staff
Community Engaged Learning staff are available to meet with faculty and students either in person or virtually.
Mallary Allen, PhD, Director
Mallary joined the CEL team in September of 2023. She grew up in Des Moines and attended Roosevelt High School. She earned her PhD in Sociology from Southern Illinois University in 2013 and taught at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. As a faculty member, she co-directed a Social Activism minor and enjoyed leading experiential learning projects at home and abroad. In 2020, Mallary returned to Iowa to be near family and began work in research and consulting. When she is not spending time with her two teenagers, her partner, and her extended family in Ames, Mallary enjoys writing, gardening, and art projects of all kinds.
Mallary provides strategic oversight of the Office of Community Engaged Learning and facilitates faculty development in community engaged learning.
